


Siren

by Fyrestorm



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-02-17
Updated: 2015-09-13
Packaged: 2018-01-12 20:52:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 20,199
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1199874
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fyrestorm/pseuds/Fyrestorm
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When the a second threat to the earth brings together the avengers once again they need the help of Bruce Banner's new partner in his helping of the people of the universe. Can the woman get past her past and move forward to help the Avengers or will the world fall? Warning OC!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

"Loki has informed me of something my allies," Thor announced casually, as if he hadn't caused a huge scene by falling from the sky in the middle of New York only ten minutes ago before making his way to the newly renamed Avengers Tower.

"Something Point Break or something important enough that you are coming down in the middle of date night and stop Pepper and I from having an amazing meal flown in from Italy?" Tony asked, nursing his tumbler full of bourbon.

"There is an ill tide about fall upon midgaurd, the people are in danger," Thor announced, tightening his grip on his hammer, "We are going to be needed."

"You should have just let us shoot him when we had the chance," Clint groaned, while Natasha nodded without looking up from sharpening her knives.

"He is my brother, I will not tolerate people speaking ill of him, we will need him," Thor announced.

"And what does he even think will happen, I mean all of the worlds know that we can kick their butts," Tony laughed while taking a sip of his drink as Pepper smacked his arm disapprovingly.

"They are coming, his former allies have found a new warrior for their cause and he is said to be much stronger," Thor paced then, restless.

"Stronger? The things that they sent before weren't strong, there was just a lot of them, what did they get now, a kitten?" Tony laughed, smiling at Pepper as he sat the drink down and raised his hands in defeat.

"Where is friend Bruce, we will need him," Thor annonced, suddenly noticing the lack of their ally.

"What did you say about us needing Loki?" Clint asked, his voice edging up an octive, standing suddenly.

"Focus, Clint," Natasha interrupted, standing and taking his wrist into her gentle hand.

"He is after someone on this planet first," Thor sighed again, taking a soothing breath, "Loki is…Loki is working with the people at S.H.I.E.L.D. to find the person they are looking for."

"He's working with what?!" Clint stomped forward, "Why is he even here!? He is supposed to be still being punished for New York!"

"Friend Hawk, be calm he is only trying to help," Thor reached out with a single hand moving in a defensive motion.

"This is insane! How are we going to trust someone that just…that…" Clint shouted, stomping in circles and shoving his shaking hands through his hair.

"Why should we trust him, Thor?" Natasha asked, following Clint with her eyes.

"Because we don't have any other choice," Thor answered, shaking his head.

"So what do you wanna do, Goldilocks?" Tony asked, standing suddenly, glancing at Pepper, who didn't look all to pleased about anything that was being said.

"We need to get back to the helicarrier," Steve announced, standing from the couch where he had been hiding, silent until now.

"Why?" Pepper shouted back, "How do we even know that your brother is tellng the truth about this?"

"My brother would know better then to lie, it is a matter of honor and of his life," Thor sighed, shaking his head, "He will be preminantly exiled if he is wrong."

"He better be," Tony snapped, bending to kiss Pepper, "We will be back soon, I promise."

"You better be," Pepper answered, "Jarvis prepare the suit for Tony and get a plane ready for the others."

"Yes, ma'am."

One Hour Later

S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier

"So we figured out the basics of what they are about to be after," Fury announced as soon as the team entered the room, though he didn't turn.

"What do you mean?" Steve asked, standing in the front of the group.

"And where is Banner? We are going to need him for this if it's real," Tony added.

"Banner is still in the wind and what they need, what they want is…"

"A person who can control the world with their voice alone," Loki announced, walking into the room with agents on either side.

"A person who can what?" Clint turned quickly.

"That's not…" Natasha started.

"It is, they are mutants that can do anything now," Logan, Wolerine of the X-Men, followed the pervious group.

"So there is some one that could seriously…"

"Get everyone, including us, to drop to one damned knee and pray that someone kill us," Logan nodded, "Professor Xavier worked with three people that could possibly be what they are looking for, so I was called in, but I think this is stupid. You idiots are chasing your tails for something that some idiot told you about on a hunch."

"It is not a hunch! The Chutiri called me back!" Loki shouted back.

"And do you think that they would really tell you the truth," Tony asked, laughing.

"None of those kids are strong enough to do what they want anyway," Logan disagreed.

"None of them, there are a few more," Fury disagreed, turning back to the screens that were pulling up several profiles, "most are too old,'' the motioned to the three on his left, all older people, knocking them away with a flick of his wrist. "She is dead," he flicked another woman away, "She was strong enough though. But this one…" he double clicked on the last one, a woman standing in a holigraphic image, "She has the power and she is young enough."

"So this is the girl they need, hm?" Clint asked, moving closer to the screen, looking at the girl that looked to be early 20s, brown hair and eyes.

"She's with Banner," Maria Hill anounced, bursting into the room, looking ruffled.

"Banner was in the wind, we promised after…" Fury tried to announce but he was interrupted again.

"We weren't tracking him, I was tracking her," Maria answered, "In Brazil for a while, disappeared and reappeared, then Banner showed up. The two have been working together for about two months."

"Time to break it up, we need them both and we need them A.S.A.P. Bring them both back to base and inform them of what is going on now."

"It's not that easy sir," Agent Hill interjected, "She has others that are following her, they have been keeping distance because of recent S.H.I.E.L.D. activity but if we try to take her away there might be some…unfortunate reactions."

"From who?"

"From the other team and…if Banner gets caught in the cross fire…the Hulk could smash both them and the girl."

"And what exactly do you think will happen if any of the agents just show up and tell the Hulk and some kid who has been in the wind get in the van?" Logan laughed, making Tony bristle in distaste.

"It's Banner, not the Hulk but that girl I can't say anything besides she has good choice in who she ran away with," Tony laughed, smiling slightly, "I'll go get them with the other Avengers, that's your best beat to get Banner to come back without incedent."

"And if the other team that is following the girl steps in?" Fury asked with a raised eyebrow.

"We are the Avengers, Earth's mightest heroes, what do you think would happen?"

"Right," Fury nodded.

"Everyone suit up!" Steve announced, then he looked back at Logan and Loki, "I don't know about you two."

"Take them with you," Fury motioned dismissively with his hand.

"Right," Clint agreed, eyes narrowing, "This is a good idea."

"Suit up then, met in the hanger and we'll take it from there,'' Steve agreed, walking away with the rest of his team and the others trailing slowly behind.

Somewhere in Brazil

Three Hours Later

"I'm ready for the next patient," Bruce called out, wiping his forehead with the back of his hand. The sweat was pouring off of his face in the noon sun, his white tee shirt was already soaked in sweat, he knew he was going to have to change soon to make sure that everything in the shabby tent was as streil as it could. His kakhis were ripped and muddy, his brown boots were untied but he continued to wear them, his brown hair was flattened to his skull.

He reached over and checked the large white med kit that stayed next to him and in front of the cot for the patients and checked the contents. The medceine bottles and slave, bandages and wraps were all still full, he would need to grab more needles for injections at the next town. The small brown tent wasn't the least strile place he had been in the past twenty years but he knew that he would also have to buy a new cot so it could stay that way.

He sighed and sat down fully on the dirt floor, allowing some of the pressure off of his knees. "I said I'm ready for the next…"

"There aren't anymore here at the moment," the female voice that he had gotten used to over the past two months answered, her voice echoing into the tent a second before she herself ducked inside. "I brought you a new shirt," she held out a new white tee to Bruce timidly.

He was taken aback for a second, blinking dumbly in her direction, before looking down to the actual shirt. He glanced back up at her, smiling that her own shirt looked freshly changed, white tee that still managed to cling to her breast and skim down her waist before changing into a pair a green, knee length cargo shorts. Her shoes however where only canvas tennis shoes, he had watched her accidently destroy her own pair of boots last week when she had to cross the river.

"Thanks," he smiled at her akwardly, taking the shirt quickly, "I need one."

"You're welcome," she smiled, Bruce watched as her normally pale skin turned a delicate pink, "You'll need to stop soon Doctor Banner and grab some food or you might pass out."

"Well I guess there aren't any other people wait for me," Bruce said slowly, biting his lip, "what are you thinking?"

"I went into town today and refreshed our provisions…there isn't much, some bread and fruit and more clean water, but it'll stop you from passing out," she shrugged.

"Thanks," Bruce gave a half grin, standing and trying to ignore the ache in his knees and back, "I'm getting old."

"Way before your time," Alex smiled, turning to lead them to the 'living' tent, Bruce trailing behind. The 'living' tent just turned out to be a matching ratty brown tent, in which sat a small bag of clothes for each person next to their own sleeping bags.

"Lunch time!" Alex shouted, dropping herself next to the bag sitting at the entrance. "What are you craving Doctor Banner?"

Bruce sat down slowly, careful of his knees, stripping his shirt and pulling on the new one. "Um, got any bananas this time?"

"Banana for Doctor Banner," she nodded, groping around in the bag searching for the fruit. "Bread for me!"

Banner smiled again, looking down at the floor as she enthusastically handed him the banana, shaking his head. "Thanks, so what have you been working on today?" he methodically peeled his fruit.

"I worked on that water purifing system some more," she answered, nibbling on the bread, "You need to make sure the chemicals are balanced inside but the structure is complete. It should last on the up side about twenty six years."

"That's great," Banner said enthustastically.

"And you saved like eighteen people today," she added with a grin, "Sounds like we both had good days, don't you think?"

"Pretty good," he agreed, holding out his hand, "Orange this time?"

"Right," she agreed, tossing him the requested fruit, "I didn't think that it would be so easy to find the right metals to create something sestainable in water for that long, without your contections I would have never been able to find anamanthim! It might even last longer then I estimate considering how strong it is!"

"I haven't seen you this excited in a long time," Bruce's voice held something akin to pride, "I told you…you would do great things."

"I'm a enginer, a math wiz, doctor," she shook her head, "and someone with one of the most deadly gift known to mutants and humans alike."

"And you have a…"

Bruce's voice was cut off by the stready sound of a metal thunk, heavy footsteps toward the tent, and then wind. Lots of wind as Bruce and Alex jumped to their feet. So strong that the tent seemed to be close to being pulled up by the metal posts that held it fast. Another landing sounded, the landing of a plane right in front of the tents.

"Big guy," the voice from right outside the tent asked, knocking open the door with a red armored arm, "long time no see."

"Tony," Bruce almost laughed at the shock, "or should I say Iron Man?"

"Doctor Banner," Steve's voice followed Tony into the tent, the man and the rest of the team following.

"This tent is getting crowded guys," Tony complained, though none of them moved.

"Avengers thing? Or is this a socail visit?" Bruce asked, watching Alex from the corner of his eyes shift from foot to foot uncomfortably.

"We need your friend," Natasha answered bluntly, pointing to Alex, "you can come with us or you can stay in the wind, but I would suggest moving because S.H.I.E.L.D. has been following her."

"You were right," Bruce said in Alex's very stiff body direction, "Someone was following us, I thought that they were after me but I guess…I was wrong. Sorry."

"Told you," she answered making Natasha and Clint stiffen, the others as well but they were more controlled.

"That's a great way to react to her," Bruce scoffed, "She can control her power."

"Their cation is for good reason," Loki announced, walking to the front of the tent sided with Logan.

"Shut up," Alex snapped without thinking, and her lack of control was almost comedic when the look upon Loki's face when he couldn't open his mouth…except it wasn't, to most of the others anyway.

"I've been trying to do that for months and she does it with two words," Tony laughed aloud, moving forward to clap his hand on her shoulder. "By the way Brucey you said you were camping out with a Mathmatian the was working on a product that could treat most of the water in third world countries. Instead I find you here with a babe feeding each other fruit."

"She is a mathmatian, she finished the machine by the way, just needs my calabrations for the chemicals," Bruce denied.

"It'll be good for at least twenty six years," she added, "I've never seen the metal at work in water but the strength is the best in the world."

"Hot and smart, Pepper and Jane will be excited that we have found another one of you, right Nathasha?" Tony barked out between laughs.

"He has no sense of self preservernce does he?" Clint asked, watching as Tony threw his arm around both Bruce's and Alex's shoulders.

"So are you going to come or not kid?" Logan snapped, glaring at the group.

"She's thirty seven," Bruce smiled, if any of them had known better they would've swore that their was something cocky in his face.

"That's not…" Clint spoke, before shaking his head, "another mutation?"

"Things…don't kill me that are supposed to," she shrugged, "I guess that included age? Because I stopped at twenty something."

"There you go Logan, guess when we all die you won't be completely alone, if you make friends," Clint sighed, trying to ignore the fact that Alex practically cringed at the thought.

"So are you going to come with us nicely?" Natasha broke into the line of civil conversation with the complete bluntness she was known for.

Bruce moved from under Tony's arm and stood in front of Alex, shocking the team for a second, "You don't seem to be giving much of a choice Tasha," Bruce said calmly.

"Doctor Banner, it's fine," Alex smiled tightly, "I'll go with them, you stay here, work on those chemicals for me."

"Bruce we aren't doing this because we can," Steve added calmly, "Loki said there is another war coming…they will come for her because they don't want a fight."

"They want complete submission," Alex whispered, holding her hand to her lips.

"Exactly," Clint nodded, "S.H.I.E.L.D. only is going to keep you until we can stop the threat, then you can follow Banner into the wind."

"I doubt that," she smiled at him, "but I'll play along."

"I'm coming too," Bruce announced, "I need to make sure the chemicals fit with the design and all."

"Then let's get moving," Tony smiled, taking him under his arm again.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two 

The helicarrier hadn’t changed since the last time Bruce was on board and neither had the agents, they continued to stare at him like he was terminally ill and would kill them. He guessed the last part was correct but all things considered they should know better by now that it would take more than just a shove to set him off. Alex looked no better than he did when he was first here either, she looked jumpy, anxious, and she had yet to say a word since she had boarded the ship in front of their tents with all of her supplies in hand. 

“She’s kindof a stiff, Green Bean,” Tony announced, plopping himself down in the seat next to Bruce in the lab. 

“She’s scared,” Bruce sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, “Where is she?” 

“Still with the angry pirate,” he answered with a shrug, “Don’t worry, he won’t do anything.” 

“I know that,” Bruce agreed, pushing up his glasses and turning back to the chemical equation for the water treatment. 

“So she’s been working with you for over two months and you have not gotten past Doctor Banner?” 

“She said it’s best that she calls me that so when she is working she doesn’t accidently command me to do something,” Bruce shrugged, “I just want her to be comfortable.” 

“So she is being ultra-careful with that name?” 

“Doctor Banner is my name,” Bruce laughed. 

“But you like it when people call you Bruce,” Tony quipped. 

“True,” he nodded, “but I like her feeling content, it makes me feel a little better knowing that she cares enough to keep a little extra care to not control me.” 

“Am I interrupting something boys?” Natasha’s voice cut into the conversation, she leaned her hip against the jab of the door, Alex stood behind her. 

“Hey,” Bruce stood up making his way over to Alex’s side, almost touching her arms, watching her flinch and letting his hands drop. “Are you okay?” 

She nodded at him, smiling slightly, before moving around him and into the lab. Alex sat in Bruce’s former seat and smiled up at him, tilting her head. “Think she’s asking if you got the equations done, Doctor,” Tony said with a wink. 

“Not yet,” he laughed, shaking his head at Tony, “I have done a few and I am almost done with most.” 

“So…” Natasha started and then shook her head, “Clint will show up later tonight to show you all to your rooms.” 

“We are going to leave tomorrow,” Tony announced sternly, “We’ll be staying in the Avenger’s Tower if Fury wants to send more of the agents with us.” 

“He will,’’ Natasha sighed, “Agent Hill will defiantly be going.” 

“Big surprise,” Bruce shook his head. 

“I’ll be back later,” Natasha waved her hand absently, turning away, leaving only the swishing of the air tight door behind. 

“So are you going to talk again?” Bruce questioned with a smile, moving closer to Alex and Tony. 

“Talking is over rated,” Alex joked, running a hand through her hair. 

“You would know,” Tony laughed, “but you seriously built this in the middle of the Amazon?” He picked up the small box in his hand, turning the metal in the light, noting the hallows, lifting the top and gazing at the complicated composition. 

“I did,” she agreed, holding out her hand for the cube, watching with a smile as he placed it gently there. “It wasn’t really that hard, I had the schematics drawn up, the hardest thing was getting the metals.” 

“You’re welcome,” Tony laughed. 

”He was your contact?” 

“Sorry,” Bruce apologized, “I should have told you, didn’t think the name would mean much considering what you’ve told me about your time in the states.” 

“It wouldn’t have,” she answered with a sigh.

“So you know we now have the top people in every field connected to the Avengers,” Tony said thoughtfully. 

“I’m not top in my field…I don’t even have a field,” Alex quickly avoided. 

“But you will be! Just give me a day to get your name out there and show people this and you and I will be the two people cleaning the world of all pollutants!” Tony shouted dramatically, jumping up and spinning around like the world was there. 

“You are so weird,” Alex laughed, smiling. 

Bruce felt a shiver of warmth down his spine at her laugh, he hadn’t heard her laugh in a while. A smile made his way to his face and he shook his head, trying to get rid of the thoughts assaulting him. “He is,” Bruce agreed, “so we are going to stay with you tomorrow?”   
“Yep,” Tony answered a little too loudly considering how close they were standing, “and we are going to save to save the world together!” 

“You’ve already saved the world,” Alex sighed, folding her feet under her, “I don’t save things, I control them.” 

“Control, save, you can do both if you balance well enough,” Tony shrugged

“Or accidently become world ruler or help some alien freak become one,” Alex laughed, “either or.” 

”Well I think you like the two of us well enough, so the three of us controlling things wouldn’t be so bad,” Tony added, “could you imagine the huge throne…oh wait…I already have one.” 

“Too much work,” she disagreed. 

”Too much stress too,” Bruce added, “We would just end up blow things up.” 

“That’s always fun,” she nodded. 

“Stark!’’ Nick Fury stormed into the room, silencing all conversation and quickly putting both Bruce and Alex on edge.

Tony felt something in his gut twitch as he saw two people that were completely calm ten seconds ago and joking with him like old friends go so quickly to stressed. He scowled, leaning against one of the stainless steel lab tables, “To what do we owe the pleasure of a pirate in our labs?” Tony asked sarcastically. 

“You want to take the one person that could help some aliens take over the world to your little tower?” Fury spat at him, glancing between Stark and Alex, who was still sitting stiffly in the chair. 

“She’s a free woman,” he shrugged, “I don’t see why she can’t be comfortable and continuing her research in a ‘welcoming’ environment.” 

“This is the safest place on Earth, this is where…” 

“No, the building with Earth’s mightiest heroes and the man who almost took over the world, I would say that there is the safest place,” Tony denied, “You aren’t giving her her rights! Prisoners are told where to stay and you are acting like she is one…which you assured us that she wasn’t, right?” 

“Stark, I’m only trying to do what is best for Earth,” Fury said, holding his hands up in defense. 

“At the cost of someone that could save it? I honestly think treating her like a partner instead of a prisoner. Think about how safe she is going to be when we all leave,” Tony said simply, “You guys couldn’t stop Hawkeye and small team of trained soldiers from almost destroying this place…with a two of us helping. What are you going to do alone?” 

“I’m sure she can…” Fury stopped himself, a severe frown cutting into his face.

”Sure she can what Nick? Stop herself from being captured? Then why did you get us to bring her here?” 

“There was no thought other than to…” 

“Tell the truth Director Fury,” Alex finally spoke an ounce of steel in her eyes. 

“You were ordered to be brought here because the council wants to observe her actions and see if she is a threat to the governments of the world. They want to know if she needs to be contained or if she just needs to be watched,” Fury answered through clenched teeth and a frowned brow. 

Alex stood quickly, her fists were clenched and her mouth set, “You lied to them to get me here so you could figure out if you needed to kill me, didn’t you!?” 

“The council had that idea only if you were uncontrollable if you were able to be controlled they wanted to use your gift for…” 

“Control… that’s what they want,” she whispered, cutting him off, only then noticing that the rest of the team and the two outsiders now stood in the doorway. 

“So you lied,” Bruce asked, moving forward quickly grasping Alex’s wrist. 

“I don’t know why we are even surprised by that anymore,” Tony shook his head, slowly. 

“Is what you just said true, Director Fury?” Steve asked, moving forward, looking at Alex’s trembling form. 

“Captain don’t take this further then it needs to go,” Fury said, raisin his hands in a soothing movement. 

“You tricked us into bringing and mutant her for containment, I’m pretty sure that that’s not even legal,” the Captain disagreed with a stern look. 

“Actually it is,” Alex broke in, “mutants aren’t legally humans. They can be killed and contained however the people see fit.” 

“So this freaky council thing could kill you whenever they feel like,” Tony snapped.

“Always could, it’s not like mutants are human or anything,” Logan spat out, moving into the room, his gaze cold, “The professor won’t like what you were trying to use his powers and connections for.” 

“We are leaving the ship, you can contact me at the tower if you need something about world saving,” Tony added, waving his hand dismissively, “We’ll take my jet and any of you are welcome to take a flight back with us.” 

Bruce watched as Tony swept Alex under his arm with little resistance from Alex, his own body following under Tony’s opposite shoulder. Director Fury was shifted out of the way as Tony made his quick escape. “We’ll grab your stuff and met you up top,” the Captain muttered, clapping Tony on the shoulder before the door slid shut with a final snap. 

Tony’s body was rigid, anger coming off of him in waves, his hand was tight on both of their shoulders. He was muttering nonsensical words under his breath, so quietly that only snippets of words such as mutant and ridiculous. “Tony, it’s okay,” Alex whispered, apparently understanding more of the words then Bruce had. 

Tony slowly shook his head, moving them more quickly to the top of the helicarrier where his jet was waiting. The wind whipped around them, almost knocking them off their feet as they trudged to the ship. The door opened for the three as soon as they stopped in front of the shiny black jet, allowing them to step inside.

Tony released both of the people when they stepped onto the ship, throwing himself down on one the many plush couches the sat in the body of the ship. He buried his face in his hands, pushing the palms into his eyes and digging his hands into his hair. “Are you okay?” Bruce asked, moving over quickly to Tony’s side. 

“No,” Tony answered, with a stiff shake of his head, “I don’t understand how Fury, with clear conscious, asked us to go get a person that he was thinking of killing! I didn’t even question it! I always question it!” 

“It’s alright Tony,” Alex smiled a half smile that Bruce thought almost mirrored his own, “You thought that they were doing the right thing. Sometimes even the smartest people don’t question things.” 

Tony looked up at her with unamused eyes, “You clearly don’t know me that well.’’ 

“I did jut meet you only eight hours ago,” she quipped. 

He conceded a small smile to her, “That is true, didn’t think of it that way.” 

A swift knock cut off anything further that was going to be said, the swift flow of air as the steps were lowered again. Steve lead the group, befuddled and frustrated looks on their faces, “How are you?” the captain questioned, though these words, she could tell were completely Steve. 

“I’m fine,” Alex answered, as a wan smile lit her face, “I think that you are taking it harder than I am.”

“He shouldn’t have sent us for containment…though,” Natasha looked up at Bruce with a small twitch of the lips, “I just realized this rather recently.” 

“Good to know that I’ve changed your mind,” Bruce laughed, though the laugh was thin as his eyes continued to glance back and forth between Alex and the team. 

“Doctor Banner, I am fine,” Alex sighed, without turning around, “I really am.” 

“So are you planning on heading back to Avengers tower? Or what?” Clint worded his question awkwardly, rubbing the back of his head with his hand roughly. 

“I’d rather take you to the tower,” Tony said suddenly, looking up from his hands with an odd look on his face, “We can make sure that no one gets their hands on you, even the government won’t try to cross me.” 

“Tony you don’t have to…” Alex stopped, watching the look on his face cross into so many emotions that she didn’t have time to keep up with them. 

“I helped SHEILD discover and corner you in the helicarrier, I’m pretty sure I have to,” Tony disagreed fiercely, “besides, you are in danger and you are important to my science bro,” he grinned cockily, though it was clearly fake, “You know, bros before hoes…wait that’s not the right thing, oh yea, we protect what’s ours…you are important to Bruce and if you are important to him, you are to me.” 

“I’m just…” she stopped, shaking her head as the pressure built up behind her eyes, this wasn’t the time nor the place to reveal the shady parts of herself. 

Bruce felt himself reach out, grasping her wrist in shaking hands, he knew what she was thinking. She had spent enough time with him to release the details of her life, how she viewed herself, her past… He shook his head, “Don’t,” a single word escaped from his mouth before he could stop it. 

“Fine,” she answered, taking a deep breath before sitting back among the cushions next to Bruce and Tony, “I’ll go back to the tower, I mean, what’s the worst that could happen.” 

“Good,” Tony said sharply, nodding, “I’ll make sure that there is a room suited for your…screams.” 

Alex laughed, a sharp shake of the head, “Thanks, I really need a room with shatterproof things.” 

“And a bunch of screen less computers,” Tony added, “After all, your work is going to save the world eventually.” 

“I highly doubt that,” she smiled, “but I would like a computer that wouldn’t be able to break if I didn’t freak out a little.” 

“Do you actually have that technology?” Bruce smiled slightly, jumping as the plane began to take off without warning. 

“Have you not seen the things on the helicarrier?” Tony questioned with a raised eyebrow. 

“Those were yours, weren’t they?” Bruce almost laughed that he hadn’t thought about that before. 

“Of course, everything always is!” Tony announced with another cocky grin. 

“Stark,” Clint spoke again, drawing attention to himself, “you do understand that you are going to have another world, a government agency…” 

“And the other not so government agency all looking for me,” Alex added with a sigh, “A lot of trouble for…’’ 

“Someone that could bring the world to its knees?” Loki finished, eyebrows raised in a haughty manner, “You are forgetting you puny human that you could destroy the world.”

“But you are still calling me a puny human?” she asked with raised brows. 

“You can still die,” Loki dismissed with a wave of his hand, “therefore you are still human.” 

She shrugged slightly, smirking before turning to Bruce and Tony, “Do you think we can get some real food at your tower?” she sighed dreamily, “I would kill to get some meat…I haven’t had meat in years!” 

“Really that’s all she wants…and she is going to stay at Stark, I mean, Avengers Tower?” Tony looked at her, a flicker of gratitude of his brown eyes. 

“I just want some bologna, please!” she whined, as if he was going to deny her. 

“Grade A steak will be waiting in your room,” Tony laughed slightly, as he watched Bruce’s eyes light up and the team’s posture relax. 

“Meat!” she shouted in triumph, throwing herself onto Tony, dramatically hugging him, “Tell your girlfriend she may now have competition because I am in love with you!” 

The group chuckled, though Natasha caught a flash of something on Bruce’s face before he hastily covered it and smiled along with them. He sat down next to the girl putting a hand on her shoulder and pulling her off of Tony, “Pepper is terrifying and Tony is way too old for you,” Bruce said as if he was saying something else entirely. 

“Doctor Banner, you know I’m only a few years younger than you and Tony is only a year away from your age. I only look like a kid,” Alex sighed, but she let herself be pulled herself back to the seats between the scientists. “Besides you know I was joking,” she smiled softly at him, winking awkwardly. 

Bruce scoffed before looking away and shaking his head in shock. “So about those equations…” 

“No!” Clint shouted, disgust coloring his tone, “Please no science or math, please talk about something normal! Something fun!” 

“Math and science are fun!” Tony interjected. 

“Fine, what would you guys like to talk about? And please sit down before you give me high anxiety!” Alex announced, attempting to show them the confidence that she had gained from confronting Fury. 

Bruce noted Alex from the corner of his eye, curling in on herself, taking the stance both of them usually took when dealing with people. She was slowly freaking out, even though she wouldn’t admit it to any of them. He sighed, pinching between his eyes. 

“What about how you guys met and stuff,” Clint laughed, winking at the pair, watching Alex blush up to her ears. 

“I was working my first week in the Amazon when someone came into my tent screaming about a woman,” Bruce answered with a chuckle, “I followed the kid out and found Alex laying there, half-dead, unconscious and running a fever that would kill almost anyone. I took her under my care and after a few weeks she woke up.” 

“I decided to stick with him after that,” she added, “He saved me, it was the least I can do. So together we began to help people.” 

“Oh he saved you so you are now indebted to him forever!” Tony announced with a small nod. 

“Yep, I now own her soul,” Bruce said, sarcasm lacing his voice. 

“I don’t have a soul Bruce,” Alex disagreed, “You should have known that.” 

“Tony…what are we going to do when we get back to your tower?” Natasha questioned, raising an eyebrow, “Do you really think that all it’s going to take is being you to protect all of us?” 

“We are going to do exactly what we always do in the tower with two more geniuses and a much better cook then usual to go with our baker!” 

Steve shook his head, knowing that the ‘baker’ was of course him, it would be nice to have a kitchen that didn’t smell like thick burnt food every time he was going to bake something. “It would be nice to spend some time in the kitchen again without a gas mask.” 

“You bake, Captain?” Alex tilted her head in confusion. 

“Better then these guys,” he laughed, relaxing more into the friendly conversation, “They would burn water, I swear it.” 

“I lived off of noodles most of my life so I can’t say anything,” she laughed.   
“Noodles!? As in those things in a package you make with boiling water?” Thor boomed, “Those sound most delicious!” 

“They aren’t, Blondie,” Clint disagreed, “They are cheap and salty.” 

“And only good in certain degrees,” Natasha added, a look of disgust as if she was remembering past experiences with noodles on the field.

“I liked them,” Alex yelped, jumping to her own defense. 

“You won’t after Bruce and the Cap are done with you! You’ll never be able to eat that stuff without cringing again. Trust me, I know,” Clint halfheartedly whined.

“That won’t be helpful later on,” Alex winced, her concern seemed all too real while Clint’s was a joke. 

“Hey hey hey, you planning on running as soon as the world is safe?” Tony asked, mock outrage in his voice. 

“Maybe a day after, you know you can always overstay a welcome,” she winked at him, hoping to pull this off as a joke. 

“Nope, you are now part of the Avengers, you aren’t allowed to leave again,” Tony said simply, “I don’t even understand why you would even want to.”

“I don’t understand you people,” she sighed, running a hand through her hair, “You don’t want me around longer than necessary or you will get a lot more people coming to your home that have a lot less care about laws.” 

“Eh,” Clint shrugged casually, “Nothing we couldn’t take care of.” 

“Strange people,” she whispered again, though she could feel a soothing comfort settle around her and a smile tugging at her lips. She felt welcomed, mildly cared about and she actually liked it, she hadn’t ever felt this way before…until she met Bruce actually. Another hand thoroughly her hair as she shook it quickly, she couldn’t get comfortable, she wasn’t allowed…too much could happen. She would stay here as long as necessary and then she would sneak away, even away from Bruce, because that is was her life. 

“I’m going to sleep awhile,” Natasha said seriously, glaring down at them as if she meant something more, “Do not wake me up until we get to the tower.” 

Another smile tugged at her lips, “I’m going to nap too,” she added, leaning her head back against the wall, “don’t worry though nothing would be able to wake me.” 

She watched Natasha shake her head, a twitch of her lips turning them slightly upward, before leaning her head onto Clint’s shoulder. “Don’t move.” 

“Aye aye,” Clint smiled widely, as if he were completely used to being a pillow.   
Alex breathed in deeply, clearing her mind and closing her eyes, letting her world go black. Bruce chuckled slightly as he heard the snores immediately started to escape Alex’s slightly open mouth, he didn’t expect anything less, she had woken up with him at seven in the morning to start giving the medicine. “Guess that mediation I taught her worked for something,” Bruce pondered out loud.

“She always sleep that fast?” Steve asked, shock coloring his tone as some turbulence caused the plane to bounce and Alex knocked her head against the wall…still snoring, “Or this soundly?”

“No,” Bruce shook his head, reaching over and shifting Alex until her head was in his lap, making everyone raise a mental eyebrow though he didn’t notice, “When we met she had tons of night terrors, anxiety, and insomnia.”

“Why?” 

“Childhood trauma I think, she told me she had spent a lot of time running and seen a lot of really bad things,” Bruce answered, moving his hand to her hair and with gentle sweeping fingers he moved the stray hairs that had fallen into her face behind her ears. 

“You think?” Natasha questioned, her brain picking out the word as easily as Tony could’ve picked up the word wrench or Thor could’ve picked out the word feast. 

“She hasn’t told you why she has trouble sleeping?” Clint continued her question, his mind suddenly wary, “You two have been together for months according to Hill.” 

“Just two months and I don’t push,” Bruce interjected, “I think that is why she stays.” 

“Because you don’t make her tell you about her past?” Steve pondered aloud. 

“She has things in her past that she doesn’t want everyone to know, just like the rest of us,” Bruce said pointedly. 

“Don’t you think that that might be pertinent to what’s happening now, Doctor?” Natasha questioned, “Maybe that’s why people are after her.” 

“It is, I know that much,” Bruce laughed, but the sound was hallow, “I needed to know that much if I had several people with guns following me.” 

“So what are they there for?” Tony poked Bruce in the side, “And for someone that says that they aren’t together, you two look pretty chummy to me.” 

“She couldn’t sleep like that, she would have a stiff neck later and that’s how I know that that is probably what her night terrors were about, because that’s where the men are from.” 

“Her past?’’ 

“They work for her adopted father,” Bruce nodded, taking a deep breath to soothe his nerves as he heard Hulk growling in his head. “He wants her back.” 

“She’s 37 I don’t think it matters what he wants,” Tony laughed, then he felt his heart drop when he saw the look on Bruce’s face and the shake of his head. 

“Though I’m not clear on the exacts I’m pretty sure dead or alive was part of their orders,” Bruce whispered, once again his hand running through Alex’s hair. 

“Told her she fits right in,” Tony sighed again, the comment would have been funny in any other situation but Tony’s tone was very grim. 

“Now, I’m going to nap,” Natasha broke in, rubbing her face into Clint’s thigh, curling up like a cat. 

“Right,” Tony agreed, the idea of a drink and a nap sounded great all the sudden, “JARVIS! Wake us when we land!” 

“Yes, sir, there is also a napcap waiting at the bar before your nap,” JARVIS replied, saying the word napcap with a tired tone. 

“Napcap?” Clint questioned with a laugh, which earned him a swift slap from Natasha. 

“Like a nightcap but before nap time,” Tony explained proudly, moving to the bar and taking his drink with one swift gulp before settling himself on the couch, next to Bruce and leaning on his free thigh. 

Bruce gave him a weird look, not pushing him away however, “What are you doing?” 

“Hey! It’s free and according to your complete denial about your relationship with her means that friends can totally nap on your thighs!’’ Tony announced cocky smile glued in place. 

“Whatever Tony,” Bruce shrugged, leaning his head against the wall, slipping into a meditative sleep. 

Tony sighed, stealing a glance at Clint and Steve who both shrugged, but both knew what was going through Tony’s mind. Another cocky smile crossed Tony’s lips as he caught the look in Steve’s eyes that screamed disapproval, “He’ll admit eventually, I’m just going to make him admit it a lot sooner…they’ll thank me later,” Tony excused himself, closing his eyes. 

“Tony,” Steve whispered disapproving. 

“Let him be, Cap, he’s not going to change his mind,” Clint sighed, closing his eyes as well. 

“They will make a freaky couple,” Logan whispered from his side of the room as everyone on the Avengers team drifted into sleep, while he and Loki hid in their own corner, still unnoticed as they entered the plane in the first place. 

“Hmmm,” Loki nodded, watching all of them with a critical eye, “This should be fun.”


	3. Chapter Three

Chapter Three

 

The plane landed over four hours later…though no one know how the plane ride had ended up taking that long when it was supposed to be a two hour flight at most on Tony’s state of the art jet. Pepper, along with Jane and Darcy were all waiting at the airport for the jet, though no one knew how they knew they were returning. The group descended from the plane and nothing good was about to come from the tapping of Pepper’s toes in her stiletto heels.

 

“Anthony Edward Stark!” Pepper barked out, moving forward with a tight look on her face, glaring down at Tony.   


Tony flinched at the tone, immediately moving behind Thor, hoping for some cover when the heels were about to fly at his head. “Peps…you know I hate it when you use my full name,” Tony whined gently, not daring to look out from behind Thor’s large frame.

 

“What did you do?” she continued, pinching at the crease between her eyes, though she still looked like a vision in white in her pressed dress suit. “Director Fury has called the tower over eighty times, ranting about how you have betrayed SHIELD! What did you do? Did you break into his system again? Did you steal all of the files again or did you…”

 

“Wait! He said what?” Tony shouted, anger giving enough courage to face Pepper and her evil heels as he pushed himself out from behind Thor, “We didn’t betray SHEILD! They lied to us! They had us hunt down a girl that they were possibly going to kill because she has awesome powers!”

 

“What?” Pepper jerked back, a blank look on her face, shock coloring her tone. Out of all of the possibilities that she had thought was going to happen when they said Tony lead the Avengers in an all-out betrayal she had never thought that it was to save someone.

 

“Guys meet Alex,” Tony announced, motioning to the girl between Bruce and the two super spies that were continuously looking around them as if ready for war. “She is a…”

 

“Mathematician!’’ Jane spoke out, pointing to Alex, a thoughtful look on her face, “I studied your papers in grad school…but you should be at least thirty…”

 

“Thirty seven,” Alex corrected, smiling slightly, “I’m also sorry about having to study that. It sounds painful.”

 

“It wasn’t the…wait you really are…oh my…” Jane looked a little shell shocked to say the least, “You are amazing! I mean that! Oh my… you were one of the reasons I noticed the mathematics involved in the astrological abnormalities that helped me find Thor!”

 

Alex blinked slowly, once…twice, stunned into a frozen shocked state that scared Bruce for a second. “Thanks?” she said her answer as a question, making him smile again. He should have known that she wouldn’t understand how to react to people actually looking past her abnormality to see the big brain that she had been hiding.   


“Oh my…can I just, can I talk to you about what made you start researching the equations and statistics of mathematics compared to astrological abnormalities?’’ Jane was babbling, completely forgetting the fact that less than twenty minutes ago she had been on the warpath along with Pepper. She was in complete fan girl mode which she hadn’t mentally prepared herself for, she grabbed Alex’s hands, pulling her away from the rest of the group and beginning to babble about every part of Alex’s equations that she had used in her thesis.

 

“Aww, doesn’t that look familiar?” Tony laughed, throwing an arm around his shoulder.

 

“What do you mean?” Bruce asked, continuing to watch as Jane gushed and Alex continued to grow more and more uncomfortable.

 

“Doesn’t her face look just like yours when I told you about how much of a fan I was of your work?” Tony said, sounding mildly insulted, “I mean the look on your face then, I would’ve paid so much for JARVIS to have been able to take a picture of that! I was like you had never heard anyone say that before…just. Like. Her,” he continued, pointing to Alex with a wagging finger.

 

“I think Jane is most enamored with the Lady Stone!” Thor announced proudly, “They will learn much from each other! It is good you found her good doctor!”

 

Thor clapped Bruce on the back with his broad hand in a show of comradery. “I’m glad you’re excited about her being here,” Bruce laughed anxiously, twisting his fingers together.

 

“She will spend much time with Jane and I and we will learn many things about this Mathhhmattics,” Thor stumbled over the word, before smiling widely, “It will be most fun!”

 

Bruce blinked suddenly, the thought that Alex would be spending time with people other than himself finally setting in. She would have other friends, be working with everyone else, and would more likely want to work with someone like Tony or Jane that focused more on similar sections of learning as she did. He felt something twist in his gut, something that he didn’t recognize completely but he knew he had felt this before.

 

“Earth to Bruce?” Tony’s voice broke into Bruce’s analysis of his emotions, his hand waving in front of Bruce’s face quickly making him jump back in shock. “What were you thinking about, Big Guy?”

 

“Oh, nothing, nothing,” he answered quickly, shaking his head. “So we are going to the tower now?”

 

“I have all three of the limos waiting for all of the bags and the entire team,” Pepper answered with a sweet smile.

 

“Ah!” Alex yelping drawing everyone’s attention as Thor threw her dramatically over his shoulder, her eyes widened and her hand clamped over her mouth. “Sorry,” she whispered, catching Thor’s small flinch as the high pitched yelp made its way into his ears.

 

“Tis fine! Another wonderful discovery! That was what the man of iron was speaking of when he spoke of screen less magic boxes!” Thor announced, jumping slightly moving forward to the group with her still thrown over his broad shoulders.

 

“Can I ride with you on the way back to Avengers Tower?” Jane questioned, excitement still sparkling in her eyes. “I would love to continue talking to you about the…”

 

“Yes yes, all the science nerds and Thor and Pep in the first car and all the boring people in the other!” Tony announces loudly, waving his hand casually towards the pair of limos.

 

“Tony,” Pepper chastised in a low tone, though there was a giggle in her voice, “be nice and do you think that all of us can fit in one…”

 

“It’s called stretch for a reason,” he grinned, tossing an arm around her shoulders and pulling her close, “Besides you could always sit in my lap! Apparently friends can sit on each other’s laps too that means that if we need more room I can sit on Bruce’s!”

 

Bruce and the Captain shot Tony a mixture of look that could kill, though the look Tony gave in return was completely unrepentant. “Come on Tony before you get yourself killed,” Pepper smiled, moving the pair of them forward toward the limo, out of reach of Bruce even if he turned green.

 

Alex however was still trying to decide how she felt. The woman continued to talk a million miles a minute about another subject she had entered, her own thesis she had done in her final year at MIT, smiling at her as if there was nothing in the world odd about her. She was continuing to be carried around by the ‘demi-god’ Thor, whom she would have sworn didn’t even notice her weight and barely flinched when she had screamed. These people, they were all acting like she was completely normal…then again considering their version of normal she was probably pretty close.

 

Tony’s driver got out of his seat quickly as the group approached and opened the doors, standing back so that the group had enough room to pile in without having to move. Thor sat inside first, moving Alex down into the seat next to him and Jane as she sat next to him, Bruce, Tony and finally Pepper. “So…can I ask you more questions or are you…” Jane asked, blushing and biting her lip.

 

“Um,” Alex blinked at her, wide eyed, how could she still have more questions?

“She’s clearly not used to people understanding her work,” Tony laughed, grinning at Pepper, planting a delayed kiss of greeting on her cheek before looking back at Bruce.

 

“More like she didn’t think anyone was reading it,” Bruce disagreed, smiling slightly at the blush that had since made it’s way over Alex’s face.

 

“Hey, most work of a mutant goes under layers and layers of security tape after they are uncovered, it’s not likely that anyone besides probably Doctor Gray and Professor Charles Xavier that is still being read in classrooms,” she snapped back, shaking her head; the thought of all of her life’s work going under because she was something different killed her soul.

 

“I think you were already too well known before you were released as a mutant to the public to get you under tape,” Jane answered, a thoughtful look on her face.

 

“Not to mention you have had some of the greatest leaps in mathematics and engineering in the past thirty years,” Tony added, “You have a huge brain that not even disappearing off the earth could hide. I mean seriously, you introduced Chaos Theory.”

 

Alex straightened suddenly, “Under a false name, how did you…”

 

“Not false,” Tony disagreed, wagging his finger in a chastising manner, “Your old name, like most of your work is under, at least all of your more recent stuff.”

 

“How in the world…I’m actually not surprised, I don’t know why I’m acting like I am,” Bruce sighed shaking his head.

 

“You were leading a trail for someone to follow, weren’t you?” Tony asked suddenly, “I mean all of the equations had some numbers that equaled out to be coordinates of different countries.”

 

“The metaphorical bread crumbs for someone to follow so that he wouldn’t start ripping apart homes in the more populated areas in the world,” she nodded, “I knew that most people wouldn’t notice the fact that I had changed font size on the numbers but he would…and apparently you mister Stark.”

 

“I notice everything,” Tony agreed, cocky as ever.

 

“I knew you couldn’t just keep those theories you were working on to yourself,” Bruce laughed to himself, remembering several long nights of Alex hunching over an old chalk board working on equation after equation.

 

“That was a huge discovery!” she shouted, throwing her arms in the arm, “Actually the only thing, I think I ever published in my name now is what Jane is talking about…” she hummed thoughtfully, going through everything that she had sent in to journals over the years.

 

“I knew that you couldn’t have published something like that and disappeared!” Jane shouted, “What until Erik hears that I was right! I started to follow another set of mathematics by another woman that had very similar style as you did. Hannah Striker, she was a general’s daughter at some point.”

 

Jane stopped as she saw Alex flinch, looking over sharply, “That’s you isn’t it? You Hannah too?”

 

Alex shrugged, running a hand through her hair, “And the general is the one following me, it’s good to know that my bio is still up,” she laughed bitterly.

 

“Home. Mister Stark?” Happy interrupted from the front seat, glancing over his shoulder.

 

“Of course,” Tony nodded, waving his hand in dismissal, “Also Happy I want you to amp up the security in the tower, make sure that everyone has a name tag.”

Happy smiled widely, glancing back in the mirror, “Gladly sir.”

 

The car stirred to life, moving forward quickly just as Jane had opened her mouth to ask Alex another question about her latest projects, when she suddenly stopped. A smile graced her lips, a weird half smile that almost seemed sad, before she nodded slightly at Alex. “Would you switch seats with me?” Jane questioned slightly, picking up on something that no one else in the car seemed to.

               

Alex titled her head slightly, confusion creasing her forehead as she tried to ignore the fuzzy feeling in her stomach at the thought of being next to Bruce. She nodded, hesitantly catching Bruce’s eyes before climbing over Jane and almost falling into Bruce’s lap, making Tony burst into laughter. She sighed, more amused than annoyed because she was over joyed at the change in conversation that she was almost sure was about to occur.

 

Bruce felt his heart speed up, thankful that he had turned off the sound his heart monitor was supposed to make when he heart raced a little too high. If he had less self-control he knew he would have been blushing, shaking his head he pushed all inappropriate thoughts that he knew could only cause a very large green problem as Alex shifted off of his lap and into the seat next to him. He saw her own face blush, brushing the thought off as nothing but embarrassment on her part for the fact she had landed on his lap, and look at her seat an odd grateful smile on her lips that he doubted she had noticed.

 

“So are when we get back to your tower Tony can we borrow your lab for the chemical balancing for the water purifier?” Bruce asked with a smile, moving his hand closer to Alex’s leg in a comforting gesture, or at least that was what he was telling himself.

 

“Of course!” Tony announced proudly, throwing his arms up before throwing one around Pepper and the second around Bruce. “Can I be there for the testing? I mean I have a lot of ideas for the testing to make sure it works correctly in several different situations.”

 

“Of course,” Alex agreed, smiling again, as if the science talk about something she was creating with other people soothed her. Which it did, her mind was slowing down knowing that it wasn’t just her project, that now it was a group effort and the focus wasn’t her, that she was a part of something. “Could you test and make sure you think that the form is sound? I was worried that maybe since we were in the least then desirable area that I might have missed something, ya know?”

 

“The chemicals shouldn’t be that hard to measure out and the mixtures aren’t that volatile so even if something is mixed up or not measured correctly nothing should explode,” Bruce added, moving his leg so that it touched Alex, catching Tony’s eyes.

 

“That is a relief,” Pepper added, nudging Tony, “Everything he seems to be doing now blows up.”

 

“Oh, most of mine do too, but I haven’t been using very good equipment,” Alex shrugged.

 

“Or at least she likes to blame it on the equipment,” Bruce joked, nudging Alex’s side, gaining a disgruntled look from the girl.

 

“Or maybe it’s all your fault and you are messing with my stuff while I sleep,” she quipped, sticking out her tongue out at him.

 

“Not that hard considering you stay up until dawn and then sleep until noon,” he returned, his smile growing wider then Tony had seen since he had met Bruce, it gave him a warm feeling in his stomach.

 

Tony caught Pepper’s smile from the corner of his eyes, she seemed to be loving the relationship, however odd it may be. “How did you all meet?” Pepper asked, breaking into their conversation, “I mean I never really got the introduction and it was just Alex.”

 

“My name is Alexandria Stone, Alex,” Alex supplied, “I went to MIT for eight years, got a masters in Mathematics and Computer Engineering. I was an emancipated minor at the age of 12 and I went on the run at the age of around 20? I went through like seventeen different countries before I ran into Bruce, and that was when we started working together.”

 

“Whoa,” Pepper said, her eyes wide, “That was 25 years in ten seconds.”

 

“37 years,” she disagreed.

 

“What?”

 

“I’m 37 years old not twenty five,” she smiled slightly.

 

“Wow, you don’t…”

 

“Look 37? I get that a lot,” she smiled, winking.

 

“How many times have you said your age in the last day?” Bruce asked, placing his hand on top of her own for a moment, before pulling away quickly hoping no one had noticed.

 

“More then I have in the past seventeen years,” she answered, trying to hide the pain that she had felt when he had jerked his hand away like she was suddenly a rabid dog. “So am I still getting that steak when I get to your tower, Stark?”

 

“Only if you are going to let me go through the blueprints of that water purifier,” Tony countered with a smile, “Seriously, you made this in the amazon and I’m pretty sure it’s made better than anything people have made in my labs.”

 

“That’s a sad day for you Mister Stark,” she quipped, sneaking a glance at Bruce from under her eyelashes that didn’t go unnoticed by Tony or Pepper.

 

“So how long do you think you’ll stay?” Pepper asked, good naturedly, hoping for a positive answer because honestly she was looking forward to a close number of women and men in the tower.

 

“Hopefully, I will be leaving as soon as possible,” she answered without thinking, before noticing the visible flinching on most of the passengers’ parts, except Thor who as usual wasn’t paying attention. “You won’t be missing out on anything, I’m nothing but trouble,” she laughed, winking at Pepper.

 

Bruce shook his head, knowing that while Pepper and Jane giggled at the quickly spat comment, that Alex was all too serious about running. He understood that he was exactly the same way last time he was here, ready to run as soon as everything was complete, and he actually was the same way now but he knew that Alex had no reason for her self-imposed exile.

 

 _Just the crazed colonel on her tail that insisted on her death_ , his brain supplied the thought before he could censor it. He bit the inside of his cheek, cursing mentally that he had allowed himself to judge someone that he had been partners with for so long that was basically a mirror image of himself. Her hand was suddenly on his, the hand that had been hidden between the two of them so it was out of sight, making him glance up at the half smile on her face, understanding in her eyes.

 

“So she made a water purifier?” Pepper questioned, her brow froing.

 

“One that is strong enough to be able to withstand the most toxic water and clear out almost any contaminants that could harm any humans or spread water bred sickness,” Bruce explained, “In theory all we need is for my chemical measurements and testing. After that stage Alex was talking about taking it to several third world countries and creating safe places for people to gain access to safe water.”

 

“Everyone needs water, it’s the basic source of all human life,” Alex explains quickly, as if she didn’t want to be seen in a better light, like giving away her project that she had been working so hard on was common sense. “Water should be free, if the water is free and pure then it could end almost all world hunger, almost all of the world’s water born and deadly disease!”

 

Pepper nodded, understanding the need to want to help people lacking though her mind was still confused about why she was giving everything away. “Tony, shouldn’t the American government give her some sort of payment for this? If it ends up working anyway?”

 

“Only if she wanted to give away her location,” Tony answered simply.

 

“SHEILD already knows she’s here, who else wouldn’t?” Pepper tilted her head in confusion, staring Tony down before flickering her eyes to Alex briefly and the back to Tony, “Tony…”

 

“She has an organization of the army except not very legal version of the army. Actually I don’t even know if they would consider them part of the army anymore they might be just some group ran by an insane former colonel…”

 

“Tony,” Pepper cut off his nervous babbling with a simple word, “It’s okay, I was just curious on if we actually needed to amp up security. There are already a thousand complaints over Happy and his obsessive name tag thing.”

 

“Hey name tags are important!” Happy called from the front seat defensively.

 

“They are!” Tony called out, raising a fist in the air in support.

 

“So not legal army thing, so nothing new,” Pepper nodded, glancing over at Bruce with a small smile, “So we are prepared.”

 

“We are prepared,” Tony nodded, smiling along with her, before looking up at Alex, “and in my labs you can do as much research as you want in peace!”

 

Alex nodded with a smile, her brain actually reviling in the fact that she would actually have a place to do her math…her welding and building. Alex glanced over at Tony, then her eyes flickered to Bruce, ignoring the feeling of warmth in her gut at his own smile. “I would like that,” she whispered the answer, leaning her head back against the seat before a thought popped in her head. “Bruce what does he mean friends can sleep in your lap?”

 

Bruce’s face turned ten shades of red before the car burst into a roar of laughter.


	4. Chapter Four

Chapter Four

 

The ride was uneventful, but that was a total relief for Bruce, if he was honest. He was sure that SHEILD would have tried to stop them, called the police on them or something, but of course the world would have been on the side of the heroes but he thought that the fate of the woman that could destroy the world might have been more important. He released another deep breath thanking whoever was listening that he didn’t have to have a Hulk-out in one of Tony’s limos.

 

“Big Guy, what are you doing?” Tony stuck his head back in the car, making Bruce snap his eyes back open and stare at him dumbly. “You do know you are still in an actual car and not on the back of an elephant in India or something, right?”

 

“I know, I know,’’ Bruce stuttered out, glancing around him to see that indeed everyone had disappeared from the back of the limo.

 

“What’s up with you?” Tony questioned, throwing an arm around Bruce’s shoulder and pulling him closer, making Bruce stiffen.

 

“What do you mean?” he questioned, though he didn’t pull away, it wouldn’t have been much use anyway Tony would have pulled him back and teased him about it later.

 

“You know what I mean,” Tony sighed, “You are getting up on edge and that’s something considering you are one of the most chill people I know.”

 

“I’m worried,” Bruce conceded, rubbing his eyes again.

 

“About…”

 

“What if she runs when we aren’t looking Tony?” Bruce asked with a groan, “What if this is too much for her? What if us bringing her out in the open brings out the colonel?”

 

“She’s not going to run,” Tony said sternly, “if you think she is we are defiantly going to have to have a chat with her and explain thoroughly about how we don’t let people just disappear.”

 

“You let me…”

 

“No, we let you go do what made you happy,” he disagreed, looking him straight in the eye, the burning passion there making it impossible for Bruce to break the stare. “You were always on my radar, we all knew where you were and made sure that you were safe.”

 

“Do you really think that she is going to believe you? If you tell her that, you may just freak her out.”

 

“That’s the risk we have to run then,” Tony shrugged, “It’s not like she wouldn’t eventually try to find you again.”

 

“Yea, like three or four years later, if she’s even alive after all that time,’’ Bruce sighed.

 

“Trust her, she won’t run if the world is in danger, she will eventually grow to love us too,” Tony winked, “no one can resist us for long. I mean we are a group made out of the hottest people in the world.”

 

“Oh yea, weren’t you and Steve in the top ten hottest men in the world last month?” Bruce chuckled, allowing Tony to lead him to the entrance to the tower, everyone giving brief nods in their direction as they joined the group in front of the personal ‘Avengers Elevator’ that lead to the home part of the tower.

 

“Alex insists that she keep at least slightly up to date on pop culture events, says it helps her stay undercover when she’s in America if she isn’t completely confused,” Bruce smiled back at her as she shrugged, except the comments without a word.

 

“Tell the truth Al,” Tony laughed pulling away from Bruce to turn on Alex, “you were really just ogling the Captain’s butt and my awesome abs, weren’t you?”

 

“Oh yes, something to keep me company on my lonely nights,” Alex said dramatically, flashing a smile. In the back of her mind she felt a twinge of happiness as she noticed that not one of the group flinched or even move as she spoke, most of them laughing along with her while Thor blinked completely confused and the Captain blushed.

 

“Oh so the big guy wasn’t enough company?” Clint jabbed at Bruce with a warm tone that made Bruce shake his own head though he felt a slight warmth at the implications of both of their words.

 

“Always helps to have a little extra,” she winked, continuing the banter though she was still blushing.

 

“I don’t understand the implications of her words,” Thor whispered, though not very quietly, to Jane.

 

“She was basically saying that she was lonely in a romantic sense and that looking at some attractive mean, which Tony insists was himself, helped her not feel that so much,” Natasha explained smoothly, smiling over at the girl as the elevator opened and Steve practically groaned aloud.

 

“You know that you would want her to stare at you Cap,” Tony laughed, exiting the elevator as it landed on their floor and moving immediately to the bar.

                “Yea, you didn’t pose with your shirt off for nothin’,” Clint agreed, nudging him in the side as he moved to plop himself on the couch.

 

“I only did it for the positive PR,” Steve denied immediately, “I mean it was what was expected of the photo shoot.”

 

“Of course it was Steve,” Clint patted him on the shoulder mockingly.

“Whatever,” Steve huffed under his breath, rolling his eyes all to used to Clint’s jabs at the fact he did, in fact get over heated often because of a side effect of the serum and indeed did walk around often without his shirt.

 

“Hey, I thought you said that the name Tony Stark wouldn’t have meant anything to you,” Tony stated, watching as Alex turned to smile smoothly, a smile that made him immediately flash back to Natalie Rushman and false identities.

 

“Tony Stark wouldn’t have, Iron Man however, that would’ve rang a lot of bells,” she explained waving away any ill ideas.

 

“Hmm,” Tony nodded, his mouth pulling down into a slight frown that gathered Pepper’s attention and of course the spies were probably mentally calculating every possible reason for the frown.

 

“So about that steak…” she teased, smiling in a manner that he would have only attributed in the past to flirting or silently plotting to kill him.

 

“Oh yea, Pep can you take her up? They should’ve left it in the kitchen and show her to her room? I need to talk some team plotting for advance attack,” Tony lied to her smoothly, a strained smile on his lips that Pepper of course could’ve seen through on her most off days years ago.

“Yeah, I can do that,” she placed a quick kiss on his cheek, whispering quickly, “tell me later.”

He nodded, watching as she pulled away and smiled welcomingly at their guest, a guest that he was still excited about having here but now, now she was hiding something and he certainly didn’t like secrets. He turned as soon as the pair were out of earshot, “She’s hiding something,” he blurted it out before he could think about it, watching as the pair of spies nodded and the others just looked at him blankly.

                “She lied about my name not meaning anything to her, then she lied to cover it up,” Tony explained watching as the other’s each slowly understood and Bruce’s face clouded.

                “Why are you surprised that she is lying?” Bruce snapped, a spark of anger flared before he quickly stifled it.

                “I’m not surprised at the lying, more like she lied about something so simple,” Tony supplied, suddenly feeling the twitchiness in his legs that usually followed with vigorous pacing.

                “I’m more surprised at the way it was delivered,” Natasha disagreed, placing a finger under her lip, her eyes shifting downwards in thought, “it was a learned action, the smoothing of her face, keeping eye contact, while making it all seem like a completely innocent mistake or misunderstanding.”

                “I could almost bet her heart rate didn’t increase, because her breathing didn’t change in the slightest,” Clint added, his face disturbingly smooth as well.

                “You know it’s a learned behavior,” Bruce cut in, his face crumpled slightly in frustration before he reached up to sooth his brow. “She’s been on the run for a long time, after a while you learn when to hide the truth.”

                “But over something like that Bruce?” Steve questioned, tilting his head and giving a sympathetic look, “You can’t say that isn’t fishy.”

                “I’m not…” Bruce shook his head, taking another series of breathes before continuing, “I’m just saying that she doesn’t want to share all of her past, you all understand the desire not to be ‘compromised’, don’t you?”

                “It’s matters little either way,” Loki sighed, standing near corner, where the group had been sure Logan had been as well, “we must watch the girl or they will use her and that would be bad for all of you, it honestly matters little to me. I did my good deed with the warning so I have little idea why I am still even in this realm.”

                “The All-Father said you must help, brother,” Thor answered, his voice curt, “Do not presume to think you deed is complete so readily.”

                “Where did claws go?” Tony asked, running a hand through his hair in agitation, “Did he even come up?”

                “He appeared for a moment before telling me that he must converse with the Professor Xavier about the…occurrences,” Loki sighed with a wave of his hand, boredom etched into every sharp feature of his face.

                “That would be a fun conversation,” Steve scowled slightly.

                “So about the lies…” Tony asked, kicking at the carpet.

                “Let’s not worry about it right now,” Steve decided, sighing deeply, “like Loki said, we have to protect her…apparently it really is a case of life and death.”

                Tony nodded, “So big guy, you ready to get down to science?” he smiled, throwing an arm around Bruce’s tense shoulders.

                “Yea,” Bruce nodded, taking one last deep breath before opening the eyes he hadn’t realized that he closed, “I should get those chemicals done.”

                “Jane, you’re welcome to go too,” he offered, leading them to the stairs leading to the lab.

                “Coming!” Jane shouted, rushing to follow, leaving the rest of the group behind to converse on the future of the Avengers.  


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

 

                Bruce hadn’t noticed how quickly time was passing, between time actually bonding with the team he hadn’t seen in over three months and lab time with three of the most brilliant minds that he had ever had the pleasure to work with, a month had passed in the blink of an eye. There hadn’t been incident, ever thing had been quiet, well except for the fact that Tony had accidently melted several of the inner workings of Alex’s water purifier and she needed to rebuild. Bruce had honestly thought that Tony had done it on purpose when Alex was beginning to get antsy and he thought she would freak out and run.

 

                “Alex,” Bruce called sitting down his own gamma radiation equations and rubbing his face, hoping that Alex could hear him over the noise of Tony and Alex’s own blow torches and music.

 

                “Yeah,” Alex called, glancing up from her work and nudging Tony for them both to shut off the torches.

               

                “The chemicals for the purifier,” Bruce started slowly, watching for her reaction as he mentioned the project that she hadn’t completely rebuilt yet, but her face still seemed smooth even. He shouldn’t have expected less, she hadn’t even faulted Tony for doing it in the first place, even though his excuse had been paper thin. “I already have them balanced, so maybe we should prepare for testing we can…”

               

                He didn’t know how to finish his question, he was grasping at straws lately with himself and Alex’s conversations. She slowly drifted away from him into Tony’s care when they entered the tower, even though Tony was still worried about the lies, and he…he had stayed where he was, casually talking to everyone and being close to no one in particular. She still smiled at him smoothly, nudged him and hugged him in an unprovoked manner but the conversations that they had when they were in the forest alone had disappeared. Now she spoke math and engineering with Tony, joked and pranked with Clint, and often spoke about personal things with Darcy, Pepper and Natasha.

“I asked Tony to start messing up some water with bacteria and oil, stuff like that,” she answered, almost making Bruce flinch with the abruptness of the end of the conversation. She was still watching him though, staring at him intently, “The more important question, what are you going to cook for dinner?”

 

Bruce felt himself release the breath he hadn’t known he was holding. “I was thinking some curry, extra spicy, maybe some sticky rice,” he answered, attempting to sound like off handed while listing off all of her favorite foods he made for her in the past.

 

“If it isn’t extra spicy I’ll have to go in there and teach you how to do those spices again, properly,” Alex smirked at him, a glimmer in her eye that seemed almost threatening but all it did was manage to make Bruce smile more.

 

“You two are making me gag,” Tony broke in from the background, making the pair jerk their heads to stare in confusion at his smug face.

“Your face makes me gag,” Alex answered without a spare thought before picking up her blowtorch, and turning it back on.

 

“She wounds me so Bruce,” Tony sighed dramatically, placing a hand over his heart, “she hurt me here!”

 

“I’m sure that Hammer has told you worse,” Bruce smiled smugly, glancing over at Alex, who was already engulfed in wielding back together two of the pieces of steel that were meant to hold the chemicals in the correct position.

 

“Hammer wouldn’t dare…some of the past women I’ve dated, now they have,” Tony said with a dismissive wave of his hand.

 

“So did what I say sound good to you for dinner,” Bruce asked, glancing down at his work quickly, before sighing and facing Tony again, who had yet to turn back to his own work on the suit.

 

Tony tilted his head innocently, before smirking, “Like anything I would say would matter, you are cooking something that Alex likes.”

 

Bruce felt himself blush slightly before shaking his head, “I just haven’t…gotten to see her much since we got back here, you know?” Bruce shrugged, “I mean it’s hard to compete for attention against some of the weirdo’s that I live with.”

 

Tony grinned widely, he had missed Bruce’s quirky, dry sense of humor, “You know she would totally go for you just looking her in the eye and saying, ‘hey gorgeous how about a date’.”

 

“Tony, I’m not asking her on a date,” Bruce hissed, “I just haven’t gotten to speak to her on the same level that, I don’t know you, have since we got back.”

 

“Missing the level of genius that she and I supply, eh Banner?” Tony smiled.

 

“Still a little paranoid on all levels but yes, I miss having one on one conversations with both of you,” Bruce sighed slightly, shaking his hands slightly as he turned away from his science, “It’s just…”

 

Bruce never finished his sentence as an alarm pierced the air, “Duty calls?” Tony shouted over the sound of the alarm, winking and running back to double check the torch, “Let’s suit up!”

                Bruce flinched slightly, nodding as he followed Tony out the doors of the lab and swiftly making their way to the common area, where the others were already standing next to Jane, Darcy, Pepper and Alex. “Robots are attacking the city, are you guys ready?” Steve wasted no time with his words, his uniform and shield already in place.

 

“I’ll meet the jet in the city and start holding them off,” Tony called, pecking Pepper on the cheek before rushing off the balcony and suiting up.

“Need a ride, Bruce?” Clint asked, watching Thor follow Tony’s path, tossing out a salute toward him before flying after him.

 

“That might be best,” Bruce agreed, trembling slightly before turning to Alex, “Are you going to be alright?”

 

“We’ve got her Bruce,” Pepper smiled kindly at him, placing a gentle hand on Alex’s wrist.

 

“Yea, we got ‘er,” Darcy agreed, smirking, “now go green and smash everything.”

 

Bruce let out a strained laugh, before turning to the group and all of them rushing to the roof. The team piled into the jet, Clint taking the helm while the others stood behind waiting for take-off, though when it occurred the jerk was still unexpected.

 

Natasha moved forward, taking the co-pilot’s seat, and slipping on her head set. “SHEILD says that there are over a hundred robots attacking civilians,” she explained, flipping the switch to release a gun attached to the plane, “We don’t have a reason and we don’t have a person that seems to be controlling them.”

 

“That sounds promising,” Steve sighed under his breath, glancing up at Bruce who was already taking off his shirt.

 

“They seem a little ‘foreign’, according to Stark anyway,” she added, his face crumpling slightly.

 

“That’s even better,” Bruce added in a dry voice.

 

“This is Hulk’s stop,” Clint called back not bothering to turn around as he flipped the switch to lower the door in the back of the plane.

 

“See you on the other side, Cap,” Bruce joked, giving a half smile and a wary salute before jumping out the door.

 

Steve didn’t have to move from his seat to hear the angry roar that split the air or the crash that had followed a moment after. He ran a hand through his hair, a little rattled at the idea that he was actually going to be fighting alongside something as huge as the Hulk again, not to mention how worried he was about the following Bruce Banner and the care thereof. The lack of information wasn’t helping his nerves much either... everything seemed to be fraying his nerves since he learned about…

 

“Heading down, Captain, get ready,” Natasha spoke, suddenly standing next to him, guns at the ready. She smiled at him, which was more like the slight curving of a harsh line but it was as close to a smile that he was going to get with her. “Just focus on the battle, you’ll have plenty of time to think later.”

 

Steve almost felt himself smile at her as he unclipped his safety belts and armed himself with his shield, “Don’t worry about me Natasha, I’ll keep my head,’’ he answered, his voice warming slightly.

 

“I hope you mean that literally,” Clint shouted back, his voice heralding the thump of landing and swift feet as the door opened.

 

“Let’s go!” Steve shouted, running out of the door to meet the battle.


	6. Chapter Six

Chapter Six

The battle wasn't long, nor was it very brutal it seemed like the machines, which no one still had any information on, weren't prepared for a fight. All the machines stood there, attempting to fight at times with their own weak bullets from guns that didn't seem to have much point at all, Thor could walk through their gunfire with only scratches. Steve's thoughts were a flurry of activity as he groped for reasons that such weak creatures had been sent to New York or even if they were sent at all. He seated himself on a small pile of rubble, the only damage that these things actually caused, watching Natasha, Clint and Thor do the same.

"Any new information?" Clint questioned, not speaking to anyone on the coms directly but asking the question to everyone over all.

"JARVIS doesn't have anything yet," Tony announced, still following around a very large Hulk that hadn't been too satisfied with the weak and boring battle put up by his enemies, "Bruce and I will cut them up tomorrow, maybe Alex can figure out some of the computer coding while we check it out."

"Bored!" Hulk roared, turning on Tony quickly and moving back to the group, "Hulk bored!"

"Want to head back to the Green Room I made you? You can smash until you've had so much fun you could burst!" Tony shouted the idea, throwing up his arms in excitement.

"Hulk no want to burst! Hulk want smash!" he shouted back at him, turning to glare at the man as if he had just implied something horrible.

"No, no, it's a saying," Tony chuckled, flying down at patting the large green man's shoulder, "I'm saying you can go smash everything until you've had your fun and then Bruce can come out and have his."

Hulk looked at him blankly for a moment, before grunting affirmation. "Good," Tony grinned for a second, before looking around at the chunks of broken robots, "think you can grab some of these for me and Alex to take apart?"

"Hulk take," he agreed, grabbing a handful of the robots as gently as he could and watching Tony again, "Hulk take where?"

"Come on big guy," Tony motioned to follow as he flew back to the tower, "JARVIS, tell the team that Hulk and I are taking back some these useless things to the lab and I'll drop Hulk off at the green room and…yea, I won't be at the debriefing, tell them I'll be working."

"Tony, you can't miss another debriefing, you have paper work," Steve hissed into the intercom, making Tony roll his eyes.

"Sorry, Spangles, pretty sure figuring out if these things are alien tech might override old one-eyes need to know every time I ate a blueberry and stopped for coffee," Tony sassed back, landing on the balcony of the Avengers floor. His armor was immediately being taken off by the machines and placed in their rightful places in the armory. "JARVIS activate the lift and direct Hulk inside, I'll be down in ten!"

"Of course sir," JARVIS responded, "Are you looking for Miss Alexandria or Miss Potts, sir?"

"Alex will do now, JARV," Tony answered, shaking out his tee shirt and rubbing his face free of sweat before jogging into the common room.

"Miss Alexandria is in the lab sir," JARVIS supplied, "I have also already told the other ladies within the home that you are all safe."

"Thanks, JARVIS," Tony smiled to himself as he made his way into the elevator, "to the labs!"

Tony's mind was whirling with possibilities, this was of course going to be Alex's first Avengers mission! She would know that yet though of course, he had to make sure that she just thought this was a consolation from Tony himself. Maybe he could convince her that the world needed her, that she was an Avenger then she would stay…then again that hadn't worked with Bruce but it should be enough to get her to keep in contact.

"Labs sir," JARVIS interrupted his thought process, sounding as if he had been standing in the elevator for quite a while since he had actually stopped at the labs.

"Have you directed the Hulk to…"

"He is currently standing outside of the Green Room with the robots waiting for 'Tin Man'," JARVIS answered, his voice almost sounded amused, "I told him you would be down momentarily with Miss Alexandria."

"Good, he should be excited to see her," Tony nodded approvingly to himself as he moved quickly to Alex's lab and entered without knocking, though he knew this was nothing new. "So we need a mechanical genius on the lower decks so one should please stand up!"

His words were loud enough to echo back at him, cutting through any of the conversation that could have been happening. He watched as all of the women look up at him with dagger like glares as they (They being Jane, Darcy and Alexandria) sat down their tools/iPod. "What do you want, Tony?" Jane sighed, continuously thinking of the new equation for light emission that she needed to remember.

"Not from you Star-Lady, I need Shriek," Tony waved her question away and motioned for Alexandria to follow him, "I have some awesome alien tech that I want to work on with you."

"Alien tech? I don't exactly see any," she laughed, taking off her gloves to pull back her hair.  
"That's because it's in the lower decks, all ready for ripping apart and studying," Tony's voice was sing-songy, taunting her with new information that he knew that any genius would need to know.

"Fine!" she snarled her answer, heaving a huge sigh before finally moving away from the others, "So to the lower decks or some nonsense?"

"Right!" Tony announced, pulling her out of the lab and slamming the door behind him.

One elevator ride later, filled with silence and awkward nudging on Tony's part they ended up on the green room floor. "So the big guy is taking care of the machines and by taking care I mean making sure that they don't try to come back to life and ruin the towers and all of that normal stuff."

"Oh yes, normal stuff that is," she agreed sarcastically, hands on hips, "So Bruce is watching the stuff."

"No, not Bruce, the other big guy," Tony waved off her comment leading her closer and closer to the Green Room.

"What other big guy?"

"You know the big guy!" Tony announced loudly, turning the corner quickly, dragging her along. "This guy, the Hulk!"

He watched as her eyes suddenly widen with confusion and realization as she stopped in front of the Hulk. Tony could see the fear that flashed through her eyes before it was hastily hidden under a smile as the Hulk moved closer to her. "Hello?" she whispered, waving her hand slightly, "How are you?"

Hulk moved forward slowly, placing the robot down on the ground gently next to Alexandria and moving one index finger to the center of her chest. "Voice girl," he said gruffly, shoving his finger into her chest hard enough to knock her on her butt.

"Voice girl?" she questioned, rubbing her chest, noting that there was going to be a bruise there tomorrow.

"You voice girl, me Hulk," Hulk announced proudly, offering her the finger again in what Alexandria assumed was a gesture of solidarity. She took a hold of it, using it as leverage to pull herself to her feet and rub at the would-be bruise again.

"My name is Alex, voice girl is close enough," she smiled at him in an unsure manner, "and you are the Hulk."

"You've never met him before? Banner really has him on lock then," Tony smiled in approval patting Hulk's large arm in approval, "I like you too Big Guy, just like you better when you aren't scared."

"What do you mean?" Alexandria looked over at Tony sharply.

"That Bruce really has a handle on the…" Tony stopped suddenly, his brain suddenly catching up with the situation and for once in his life he was fully regretting what he had just done. "I mean of course we came down here for the…"

"Tony? What do you mean?" she hissed, cutting off his rambling.

"He didn't tell you, did he?" Tony whispered, looking back and forth between Hulk and Alexandria herself.

"What didn't he tell me?"

"The reason why he was worried about the guns, the reason for all of the…precautions," Tony waved his hand absently.

"Because he was the Hulk? Like the big, green guy that saved New York?" Alexandria sounded choked, looking wide eyed at Hulk again, "You are Bruce…like the little scientist that I have curry with and read and…" Her breath was starting to come more quickly, as she processed the information.

Tony nodded his head thoughtfully, this explained why Bruce would never ask her on a date, well more so then the usual Brucey reasons. "What did you think Bruce was doing with the Avengers?" Tony asked gently.

"I don't know!" the words burst from her chest in a rush of air, "I don't know, that he was like the field scientist or something? Maybe you had another suit!? Not this! He would have told me…I thought he would have told me something like this!"

"Calm?" Hulk offered helpfully, looking at the girl with worry in his eyes. She needed little guy, needed doctor! He nodded to himself at the thought, before falling back into his mind and letting the puny man forward again.

Alexandria blinked slowly, watching as Hulk closed his eyes suddenly, his skin fading into Bruce's normal skin tone before shrinking down into the man himself. Her chest tightened suddenly as the realization hit her that Tony wasn't lying, that Bruce had…she drug her hands through her hair roughly. She watched as Bruce stumbled up to his feet, pulling up his pants to maintain some form of dignity before looking over at Tony in confusion. "What…"

"Why didn't you tell me?" Alexandria's voice was shrill as she shouted at him, her body moved forward of it's own accord, grabbing his face in her hands, "Why the hell didn't you say that you were the HULK?"

Bruce flinched at the look on her face, the fear and anger there touching a memory of Betty that was hidden in the back of his mind. He tried to look away, but her hands held his face firmly, making him look at her. Her fear was the reason that he hadn't told her, she would have ran away from him and he had enjoyed the comradery in his work. "I'm sorry," his voice was rough, he had to have been roaring a lot today.

"Why didn't you tell me?" she hissed the question, glaring at him.

"Because I didn't want you to be scared," he answered earnestly, pulling away from her hands and looking down, "I'm not exactly the ideal tentmate…"

"You lied to me," she hissed, "You didn't trust me with this!"

"I was trying to protect you."

"By lying to me."

"I didn't want you to…"

"To what? To be your friend? Because apparently everyone else here knew!"

"That's different!"

"How!?"

"Because they are different too!"

"So am I!"

"They are dangerous!'' he growled, confused slightly by the fact the Hulk hadn't once stirred during this confrontation when with anyone else he would have destroyed the room.

"And what do you think I am?"

"Someone that has had a lot of shit forced on her!"

"So you give me more!"

"I'm sorry!" Bruce shouted, moving closer to her, "I didn't want you to have to live in more fear from me, least of all from me!"

"I'm not scared! I'm angry!" Alexandria shoved the Doctor backwards, causing him to trip and land on the floor hard.

Bruce cursed under his breath, feeling the pain shoot up his back from his bottom. She had shocked him and shoved him, yet there was still no Hulk. The look on her face was nothing but pure fury and he just noticed that Tony had hastily made his escape, not that he could blame him. "I understand, I don't blame you for hating me…"

"I don't hate you, you idiot!" she shouted, her voice edging up another octave, making his ears ring. "I'm hurt and angry! What made you think that this would be okay to do! Why? I can't believe…"

"Alexandria," Steve's voice cut through the air firmly, making the pair jerk around to face the group of Avengers that had placed themselves in front of the door.

Alexandria's face dropped suddenly. She tightened her fists as she felt the rage rush through her again, the sudden pressure behind her eyes made her completely aware of her frustration. "Fine," she hissed, turning away from Bruce firmly, "I'm leaving."

"Al, you can't just decide this on a…" Tony started before he was cut off with a glare.

She moved forward, attempting to make her way through the dense group that refused to move, but she needed to escape…she needed… she took a breath, looking up at Captain America who was firmly blocking her way...she needed to get out, "Steve Rogers, get out of my way!" she hissed the order, watching as he moved without thought and the sudden fear that struck through him when he realized what she did.

A bitter smile crossed her face for a moment, "I'm leaving, don't worry it won't happen again," she laughed, shaking her head and making her quick escape, "Bye."

The group watched as the elevator closed firmly behind her, leaving them all behind and stunned.


	7. Chapter Seven

Chapter Seven

 

They stood there in silence for what seemed like forever before they finally stopped staring at the closed doors of the elevator. Steve’s hands were still shaking; he felt a cool drop of sweat trickle between his shoulder blades making him shiver violently for a moment. He hadn’t realized…no that was a lie, he had known all along what she could do, but he just never expect to be on the other end of it; Now that he had been, he understood and he was afraid.

 

No, no, he shook his head quickly, he was Captain America, he didn’t run away and he most certainly wouldn’t run away from a friend, no matter how deadly she was. Clenching his fists and clearing his throat he finally broke the silence. “Jarvis, where is Alexandria?”

 

“My sensors to her room where cut off immediately upon her arrival,” Jarvis explained slowly, “Though from all indications of stress and noise levels she is either packing to leave or creating a rather large machine.”

 

“I’m going with the latter,” Tony chuckled weakly, looking mildly pale.

 

“Are we seriously going to let her leave?” Clint asked, turning toward the others, seeming completely unruffled, but if you looked closely everyone could see the tension between his brows.

 

“No,” Steve’s voice cracked a bit on the word so he cleared his throat again, “We aren’t going to let her run, she’s our friend.”

 

“Well she might not be after that little stunt,” Bruce said dryly, pushing himself up from the ground and dusting what was left of his pants.

 

“You need to talk to her,” Natasha said suddenly, turning to Bruce, “you need to explain yourself.”

 

“She’s right,” Steve agreed with a sigh, “you’ve known her the longest.”

 

“You need to too,” Natasha broke in, turning to Steve.

 

“Why me?” Steve asked, tilting his head in confusion.

 

“Because you were the one that got the first taste of her gifts,” Natasha shrugged, “she not just going to forgive herself for that. You need to tell her you don’t blame her. That you aren’t scared, even if it is a lie.”

 

Steve felt himself nod without thought, because the reasoning was clear even if the fear was as well. “Should we do it…” he motioned awkwardly to the elevator.

 

“Unless you want your head on a stick, I would say no,” Clint chuckled weakly, “give her sometime to cool off, if you corner her now she’s going to bite.”

 

“Speaking from experience I am supposing, friend Clint?” Thor asked, smiling brightly, seeming to be the only one that was completely unfazed by any of this.

 

“Understatement of the year,” he agreed, casting Natasha a wary glance, causing Steve to smile.

 

“I believe we should garner some food for nourishment before feeding the men to the woman? Do we all agree?” Thor laughed loudly, tossing one arm around Tony and the second around Doctor Banner.

 

“You really aren’t helping,” Bruce groaned as he and the others were being shepherded into the elevator.   
  
“I do not think any of us could do that, good doctor,” Thor chuckled, “That is why we are feeding you.”

 

“We will have to find you a worthy last meal Bruce,” Tony chuckled, seeming to be brightening.

 

Bruce shook his head groaning, this was going to end badly.

 

 

It was two hours later and according to Jarvis there was still several loud noises coming from Alexandria’s room, meaning she had yet to leave…and that he was probably the best bet to go in without acquiring bodily harm. It wasn’t exactly promising but he was sure that he would rather face off with Alexandria then have Bruce doing it and Hulk destroying the building. So here Steve was, riding the elevator up to his possible doom…okay it was much more likely that he was going to get slugged but that wouldn’t be pleasant either.

 

“We are here, sir,” Jarvis announced, though the doors in front of Steve stayed closed, “from what I can here I would suggest several things with this discussion the foremost would be discursion and avoiding looking worried or scared of her. She is already extremely stressed and volatile.”

 

“Thanks Jarvis,” Steve responded, his voice tight, “that was…very helpful.”   


“Anything I can do to help,” Jarvis sounded suddenly wary, as if he knew Steve was lying to him.

 

Steve sighed, watching the door opening in front of him to a blank hall too much like his own to be comforting. Steve walked down the hall with silent footsteps, attempting to discover which door actually led to the bedroom, which would have been a more helpful tip that Jarvis could have given him. However when he reached the end of the first hall to the second, he understood why Jarvis hadn’t mentioned where she was.

 

Her shouts were echoing this hall, the sounds of firm thumps and growls, coming from behind the final door in the hallway. Steve took another deep breath, moving forward, making sure that his footsteps were loud on the carpeted floor. It took him only a few moments walking as slowly as he could to get to the doorway walking as slowly as he could, so he stood there, unsure of what to say and staring at the door as if hoping it would give him the answers.

 

“I hear you outside of my door! I don’t know what you want but go away!” Al’s voice echoed from the door making him jump.

 

“Al? It’s just me Steve,” he stuttered, attempting to keep his voice calm against her anger, “I just want to talk to you.”

“About what?” she snapped, jerking open the door and glaring him, “About how I’m a freak? About how I just made you do something? How about how I can make people into my tools and they can’t do anything about it? How about how out of everyone here I’m the biggest monster of everyone on this planet! How about how I scared you, you Captain America, so badly that I could see you shaking for a moment?”

 

Steve stopped, not physically; he had mentally been stopped in his tracks by what was being shouted at him. She was shouting horrible things about herself, yelling about how she was a monster, feeling guilty that she had scared him. He felt himself move forward without thinking, ignoring the rest of Alexandria’s rant, he grabbed her shoulders.

 

The rant stopped suddenly, her face shocked and eyes wide as he bent to make eye contact with her. “What are you doing?” she asked, her voice shook with emotion as she attempted to pull away from him feebly.

 

“Stop,” Steve said the word firmly, making it an order with every amount of solider he had left, “stop saying things like this about yourself.”  

"I can say whatever I want if it's true!" she disagreed, glaring at him, "I scared you! That has to mean something!"

"Yes, that I was shocked," Steve countered, pushing her slightly so that they both moved further into the room and out of the doorway, "I had never expected to be on the other end of your powers so in the end it did frighten me, I'm not going to lie to you about that, but I'm not scared of you."

"You should be!" she continued to shout at him, her eyes looking absolutely frantic, "I could do anything! Make you do anything! What if I lose my temper again and…"

She shook her head frantically, her words suddenly lost and tears whaling up in her eyes, and Steve felt his throat tighten. Shit, he repeated the word several times in his head as he watched her breath in raggedly, she was really beating herself up over this. "You didn't do anything wrong," Steve said softly, moving his hands up and down her arms in what he was hoping was a comforting motion, "it was just a slip, you were mad and weren't thinking clearly."

"That's the point! I wasn't thinking clearly and I could have done something horrible!"

"You wouldn't…"

"I've done it before!" she screamed the words at him, making everything fall into silence; Steve could hear his heart pick up speed suddenly. "I did it when I was a kid…some older kids were bullying me…and I… did something bad. That's how I got on everyone's radar…it was an accident…and I…"

Steve felt it again, the tightening of his throat and the heart beating in his ears, he understood her fear now. She was just like him, them, all of them; she was living in the past, attempting with everything in herself to make up for it. The fear that she was experiencing, the emotions that were making her act this way about what happened between them was something she learned was necessary. He wasn't just going to be able to talk to her about this, convince her with words that he wasn't afraid.

"I'm a monster," she whispered, looking into his eyes finally, allowing the full brunt of her pain hit him, "I've killed people…"

Steve pulled her to him suddenly, understanding what he could do now that he knew words wouldn't work, he tightened his arms around her in a hug. He put all of his emotions into that single hug, allowing her to understand his fear but his trust in her, telling her physically that he didn't want her to go. "All of us have killed someone at some point in our lives," Steve explained, propping his chin on top of her head to surround her further, "we fight every day to save people now, to make up for what we have done. You are not a monster, you just made mistakes, and where better to make up for those mistakes then with others doing the same thing?"

He felt her stiffen in his arms and for a second he was worried that she would push him away. Then her arms slipped around his waist and her face pressed against his chest, "How do you know I won't do it again? Doesn't it scare you?"

"Not as much as the thought of losing a friend," Steve answered honestly, worry shooting through him at the thought that she would run, even after all of his assurances.

"Are you sure you aren't just saying this because of the threat I might cause?" she whispered, another fear allowing itself to cut into Steve.

"If that was the only thing that we were worried about then we could just watch you from a distance," he answered, tightening his arms around her further, "you are our friend, we want you here…besides who would convince Tony and Bruce to eat more food then blueberries, tea and alcohol?"

He felt her shake with laughter for a moment, making him finally relax for the first time since the lab incident. His joke broke the tension and Al pulled away from him gently, looking up at him and smiling, "You guys would have to force it down their throats," she chuckled, "they would never remember without me throwing paper at them and complaining."

"Which is why you are going to stay?" he asked her hopefully.

"Which is why I'll stay a little longer," Alexandria agreed with a slight nod making him smile at her weakly and his shoulders sag with relief.

"Well," Steve smiled at her again, a half smile that showed the awkwardness of Steve behind his Captain America persona, "I better get down stairs before Tony starts trying to find a way to pick up Thor's hammer again and sets the table on fire."

Alexandria nodded at him slightly, giving him his chance to turn away and almost run down the hall away from her. Then suddenly he stopped, mid-step to turn his head back to her. "Dinner is at five and…Bruce is going to come up before then for a talk," Steve said everything quickly, his face blushed red before he ran down the hall again.

Alexandria froze for a moment, staring after him until she heard the tone of the elevator and the doors closing behind Steve's retreating form. Bruce was going to come up here to talk? She suddenly felt angry again at the thought, because he better have a darn good excuse for this. She needed to hit something…so she slammed the door behind her and turned back to her mess of a room, there had to be something here suitable.

 


	8. Chapter Eight

Chapter Eight

 

Bruce got to hear how exceedingly well Steve’s talk went with Alexandria, he even got the first look of complete and total exhaustion that was written on Steve’s face as he exited the elevator. He had grinned at him, put his hand firmly on his shoulder and told him that it went well. Even when Bruce had told him that he looked all of his age and said he doubted it had went that well if that’s how he looked he had just laughed at him. Grinning he told him he had never had such an emotionally honest person talk to him since Thor dropped in on him one night asking how he could make up with Lady Jane after disappearing directly after several things that Steve had taken a lot of time to bleach out of his memory.

 

Bruce didn’t know if he was trying to be reassuring to Bruce himself or if he had honestly just had an emotional roller-coaster that had wrung him a little too much. Either way Bruce wasn’t sure if he was ready to deal with any of these overly emotional things coming from Al. Sure they had in-depth talks while hiding out, talks about death and if either of them actually could die, the universe and how they could possibly fix the human resource problems with both of their intelligence; but he wasn’t sure if he could face Al and have her tell him all of her feelings in one swoop. He didn’t know if he could face Al and have her look him in the face and tell him he failed her or hurt her.

  
Maybe that was why, at four o’clock, when he should already be in her room he was instead standing in front of the elevator. He wasn’t even in the elevator or even on her floor; he was still in front of the elevator in the labs, staring at it as if it had some form of answers. His brain flitted over the possibility that he could possibly have this conversation with her by computer chat only for that to be filed away as a cowardly move that would have not Al (who was cool and calm and collected) but Alexandria (anger in human form right next to the hulk) rushing down to smack him.

 

“Ya know doc,” Clint announced his presence as he dropped through the air duct and onto his feet behind Bruce, “conversations usually go better when the other person is in the room.”

 

“You know Clint, that elevators are much quicker then skulking around in vents,” Bruce quipped back, and though his voice was hard he knew Clint was smiling.

 

“True facts on both ends Doc,” he agreed, slapping a hand against the man’s back, “but seriously, you better bite the bullet or you may never have the courage to.”

 

“I don’t have the courage now, Clint,” Bruce countered, not looking away from the steel doors.

 

“Want someone to push you in?” he offered with a half-chuckle that almost made Bruce smile, but instead Bruce shook his head firmly, looking down at the ground his mouth set in a firm line.

 

“What if she tells me that she hates me? What if the other guy is too dangerous and she hates me?” Bruce asked out loud, the words spilling from his lips like a torrential downpour of rain he was helpless to stop.

 

“Is that what you are seriously afraid of?” Clint laughed loudly, making Bruce blush and finally jerk around and glare at his smiling face.

 

How dare he make such light of the situation when in all honesty that is exactly what she probably is feeling? How dare he laugh when he knew that the other guy would have defiantly driven her away from him now because nobody could deal with the threat of that looming over them! “Yes Clint! That is exactly what I am worried about!” Bruce shouted at him, feeling his pulse pick up dramatically.

 

“Deep breaths, Doc,” Clint chided, still smiling and shaking his head, “and for the record that is the last thing that’s going to happen.”

 

“You don’t know that Clint, you don’t understand…”

 

“I know you two are seriously into this ‘we are just friends thing’ but she isn’t going to run away from you anytime soon,” Clint sighed, his face suddenly serious as he crossed his arms over his chest, “she shoved you on your ass after figuring out that you were the hulk, she was the girl that seriously didn’t kill your best friend after he dumped nano bots on her huge project.”

 

“And what if your wrong?” he hissed, feeling his hands turning into fists.

  
“I’m not wrong,” Clint said and an assured voice, “just go talk to her, clear everything up.”

 

“Right…” Bruce agreed, his voice unsure, “because that makes everything completely easy.”

 

“JARVIS, open the elevator to take Bruce to Al’s floor,” Clint called to the AI.

 

“Clint, I’m not ready to go talk to her,” Bruce repeated, his voice edgy, even as he listened to the doors opening behind him.

 

“I wasn’t going to ask you to go up,” Clint shrugged, moving forward quickly and shoving Bruce into the elevators, the doors closing in front of his eyes without giving Bruce a chance to shout at him.

 

Bruce glared at the door as it began to move, cursing Clint in every single language that he knew before moving his glare to the ceiling, “Traitor,” he hissed at JARVIS.

 

“As I thought, sir is rubbing off on you mister Banner,” JARVIS sounded like he was teasing so Bruce couldn’t help but smile.

  
“I’m taking it that you are taking me to Al’s floor?” Bruce questioned, suddenly leaning his head against the cool metal of the doors, shoulders slumped.

  
“Yes sir,” JARVIS agreed brightly, “and if I may sir, I would agree with Mr. Barton.”

 

“With the idea that she wouldn’t hate me after all of this?”

 

“Yes sir,” JARVIS affirmed immediately, jerking the elevator to a stop but not opening the doors since the man was still leaning on them, “I believe thoroughly that Ms. Alexandria was just upset and is completely fine with your condition.”

 

“Mmmm,” Bruce hummed, straightening himself so the doors could open and allow him into the hallway, “Thanks.”

 

“Any time sir,” JARVIS called, closing the doors behind him and leaving him to his thoughts as he trudged down the hall.

 

His mind was racing, he couldn’t seem to focus on what he wanted to say like he had planned on doing. Words were never really his strongest gift, he had a wary sense of humor and a biting wit when he wanted to and he was intelligent enough to form arguments but talking through emotions not so much. He couldn’t do it with his aunt, Betty, or anyone really…this is what ruined his relationships, this is what…

 

“Are you going to keep pacing my hall or are you going to actually say something to me you jerk,” Al snapped at him, jerking him back to reality.

 

He blinked several times, jerking himself around from the end of the hallway back toward the elevator. Alexandria stood there, her face red and her hands on her hips, glaring at him with eyes full of every emotion that he had feared. “I…” Bruce stuttered out the word, his mouth hanging open uselessly as no other words came. Yes, he was sounding just like one of the smartest men in the world right now, didn’t he?

 

“You? For someone who always has some sort of scientific answer you sure don’t have any now, don’t you?” she snapped at him again, moving her arms across her chest.

 

“I’m sorry,” he blurted out suddenly, feeling his face heat up with the words. He hadn’t meant for them to come out so quickly, damn, he looked to the floor.

 

“You’re sorry?” she parroted at him, he could feel her eyes on his scalp.

 

“Yes,” he agreed, still not looking up, “I’m sorry…I shouldn’t have kept that from you.”

 

“That’s for damned sure,” she agreed, her voice still hard but suddenly it didn’t have the fire that it had before.

 

He dared a glance upward, his eyes taking in the frown on her face but the more relaxed muscles in her face, “I didn’t mean to hurt you but telling someone that might be important to me about my…condition…isn’t something I want to do.”

 

“So instead you lie about it and hope that they don’t find out,” Al finished with a snap to her voice, her fingers tightening around her arms.

 

“They usually don’t,” Bruce conceded with a small nod, “I don’t stay in one place too long for them to get the chance.”

 

“So they are open with you but not the other way around, completely fair, right?”

 

“I never said it was fair,” Bruce disagreed, suddenly angry. He rushed forward, something inside him suddenly not thinking about consequences, as he stopped in front of her and glaring at her face. “I don’t want to be like this, I don’t want to lie and I don’t want…I just didn’t…”

 

“Want to be alone?” Al sighed, rubbing her hand against her forehead to soothe what seemed to be an oncoming headache.

 

“Exactly,” he agreed, feeling the sudden need to drop his gaze but fighting the urge. “We should have a talk…or something about this shouldn’t we?”

 

“Come inside then, Doctor Banner,” Al agreed, backing away from the door and disappearing into the darkness.

 

Bruce took a steadying breath, peering into the darkness of the room from the doorway. He wasn’t looking forward to this, he supposed he shouldn’t but… another deep breath followed and he stepped into the darkness.

 

 


End file.
